A substantial bulk of Dublin's pubs are still owned by an owner with only one or two pubs; but there are a handful of significant multi-site operators - Press Up, Louis Fitzgerald, Charlie Chawke, Madigans, David L'Estrange, Mercantile and so on; some of which are growing their pub estates at a significant pace.
I previously wrote on Dublin's now defunct 1960s pub chains - the Madigan Group are an extant chain from that era - but there are two notable chains that have fallen by the wayside after being a significant presence during the Celtic Tiger - the Thomas Read Group and Capital Bars.
Both of these chains started off with single, existing pubs and both expanded primarily by construction of new venues; eventually taking advantage of the increased ease of moving pub licences - although both had considerable holdings even by then.
If you drank in Dublin from the early 90s to the late 2000s, particularly at night; you'll probably have spent a fair bit of time and money with these operators.
Thomas Read Group / Thomas Read Holdings
The name Thomas Read has an odd route to being involved in pubs to begin with - Thomas Reads was the oldest shop in Dublin, a cutlers (manufacturer of swords, cutlery, shaving blades etc); opened in 1670 and which closed in the 1990s. The building has been recently extensively restored and now houses a barbers amongst other uses.
The pub that took the cutlers name, and named the owners group, was next door; itself a 1994 extension towards the corner of the historic The Oak. It, as we'll see, was the last asset left as the group collapsed and has most recently reopened as The Beer Temple, a branch of the Galway Bay Brewery chain.
Thomas Read Group - Sharmane Limited in legal terms - was majority owned by Hugh O'Regan, who began his life as a publican by buying what was Flannerys on Temple Bar / Temple Lane and renaming it as The Temple Bar in 1988. This pub did not stay with the group in to the era by which it had taken the TRG name.
The TRG name begins appearing in job ads and other media coverage in 1998, by which time Hugh O'Regan had a number of pubs under his belt; and a continual development pipeline of new premises.
In addition to the normal pubs, hotels and restaurants, the group ran eight bars in Dublin Airport - I suspect that was absolutely all of them at the time - under licence from the DAA. These were all in Terminal 1 - Terminal 2 hadn't opened yet - and would have included the airside bar above security and a bar in Pier C, both gone.
O'Regan sold the bulk of group in two tranches (to the same purchaser) over 2004/5; retaining the Morrison Hotel, Stephens Green Club and the Dublin Sports Hotel amongst other assets. These unfortunately suffered financially during the post Celtic Tiger crash, with eight figure debts by the time O'Regan lost control. At the time of writing, the redevelopment that he began at the Dublin Sports Hotel still remains unfinished, albeit it has been in the control of the Comer Brothers for nearly a decade.
TRG continued after O'Regans exit, expanding with some further premises and taking on substantial debt in 2007 to fund further expansion. One late, uncompleted expansion attempt was buying in to the former Bewleys on Westmoreland Street in 2008 - there were already bars on the premises at the time; but the intent was to reopen the cafe, apparently as the first of a Thomas Read Coffee chain.
Their last new bar, the Cu Bar on Pier D (now the 100 gates) in Dublin Airport, opened in October 2008.
It entered examinership in November 2008, falling rapidly to receivership by May 2009. The Airport bars were rapidly reassigned, to the pub company of Senator Donie Cassidy; and other pubs either closed (one permanently) and were taken up by other operators, or continued under receivers until the final sale in 2013.
Hugh O'Regan died in 2012 at the age of 49.
Pubs operated by Hugh O'Regan or the Thomas Read Group at some stage:
Thomas Read, Dame Street/Parliament Street - now S0083 Beer Temple
Thomas Read Smithfield, Smithfield Square - now 1006953 Oscars
1009287 The Temple Bar, Temple Bar
The Crane, Crane Lane - closed
S0090 Hogans, Georges Street
S0056 The Bailey, Duke Street
S0173 Searsons, Baggot Street
S0026 Lincolns Inn, Lincoln Place
40 Foot / Bodega, Dun Laoghaire - now S3795 The Forty Foot
S0138 The Globe / Rí Ra, Georges Street - closed since my writeup
N1833 The Harbourmaster, IFSC
Pravda, Liffey Street - now N1994 The Grand Social
Floridita, Abbey Street - closed
S0010 Dawson Lounge, Dawson Street
Ron Blacks, Dawson Street - now S3947 37 Dawson Street
N2057 Morrison Hotel, Ormond Quay
Budabar, Blanchardstown - closed
Spi, Eden Quay - now 1018821 Meaghers
8x bars in Dublin Airport Terminal 1, airside and landside
They also had some interests outside Dublin (primarily Galway) and in non-pub restaurants.
Capital Bars Plc
The Currency has a - non-paywalled - long form obituary for Liam O'Dwyer of Capital Bars who died in 2023; which provides much of the type of summary I would intend to here; so this is really just the list of premises
Basically - Capital Bars was the eventual outcome of a somewhat convoluted process involving the O'Dwyer families pub holdings, a UK Plc, a buyout and a return to focusing on pubs, nightclubs and hotels in Dublin; followed by a delisting as a Plc. Amongst all that mix was a bid by Thomas Read Group to buy that UK Plc, just to add to the confusion.
Capital's end as a separate firm didn't come until 2016, when what remained merged with Mercantile Group. Mercantile Group later split in an acrimonious manner; with the former Mercantile head Frank Gleeson forming the Townhouse Leisure group to manage his part of the group (containing no former Capital properties). A few former Capital premises are still trading in the remaining Mercantile Group; others have been sold outside the chain.
Former Capital Bars premises:
S0149 Howl At The Moon, Mount Street - now the Leinster Hotel
S3053 Cafe en Seine, Dawson Street
Grafton Capital Hotel / Break For The Border, Stephen Street - now S3012 Grafton Hotel
S2793 Sinnotts, South King Street
S0085 Bad Bobs, Essex Street
Major Toms, South King Street - now S2860 Harrys On The Green
S0092 The George, Georges Street
SoSuMe / The Dragon, Georges Street - now S3871 Nolita
Rathmines Capital Hotel / Savannah, Rathmines - hotel now Travelodge, bar now an Aldi!
Trinity Capital Hotel / Fireworks, Pearse Street - now 1014500 Trinity City Hotel
Dandelion, Stephens Green - now S3908 The Well
Zanzibar, Ormond Quay - now 1017192 Zanzibar Locke Hotel
They also latterly operated Dublin's doomed Planet Hollywood franchise, which became Dandelion listed above
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